In these days when government leaders are dropping the ball, it is really critical for schools and teachers to take the lead in raising awareness of global warming and climate change. Recent extreme climate-related events such as more — and more severe — wildfires & hurricanes add urgency & interest.

If you’re a science teacher, you may find some useful resources here—but the idea is is for all teachers to engage students in these critical issues. Climate change, like other sustainability concepts, connects and integrates ideas from many areas—and not all students take courses that deal adequately with global warming and climate change. We need to engage students with these critical ideas in core subjects.

While individual ‘carbon footprints’ can be useful, a GHG inventory measures the footprint of the institution and makes it easier to see that global warming and climate change are systemic problems that need action by institutions, organizations, and government, not just individual choices. And an inventory helps make the concepts more visible and understandable.

This site can help you get students to explore what can be done to reduce emissions and to begin a deeper engagement with the ideas of sustainability. In the process, it helps them develop critical-thinking skills that will enable them to play a role in solving the emerging problems as it helps develop their skills in research, data collection and analysis, teamwork, reporting, and presentation.